News & Events

A new article by SHOC member Anne Winter and Thijs Lambrecht was recently published in Rural History. In their publication " Conspicuous charity and agrarian capitalism: Rural poor relief in Western Flanders c.

Research group SHOC and the FORAGENCY team are proud to announce the first FORAGENCY publication by researcher Etienne Gontard, via this link.  In, “Weaving the Future: Duiker Hides Trade and the Aka in Colonial Central Africa” , Etienne Gontard studies how, between 1920 and 1950, duikers were...

Want to know why 'Fleming' was considered an insult in late medieval England and 'Dutchman' was not? Bart Lambert and Josh Ravenhill published an article about nationality-related slurs in 15th-century London in the Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte.

How did medieval rulers and merchants use taxes and reprisals to signal resolve in trade disputes? This new article by SHOC memner Adam Hall explores conflicts involving foreign merchants in Bruges, offering insights into brinkmanship and diplomacy.

Trade wars are not just a modern phenomenon. In their new article in Continuity & Change, Bart Lambert and Louis Sicking show how, between 1384 and 1430, the counts of Holland and Zeeland tried to lure merchants away from neighbouring Flanders.

More on genetic diversity and the plague in medieval Sint-Truiden, including commentary by Bart Lambert, in De Standaard ! https://www.standaard.be/.../vlaams-dna-was.../67847129.html    

  Friday, 9 May, a SHOC delegation visited the Poorten exhibition at STAM in Ghent. The expo shows how dynamic and colourful city districts arose around (now often disappeared) city gates. We were given a tailor-made guided tour by Tina de Gendt , curator of the exhibition.

SHOC welcomes new member Patxi Pérez Ramallo!

The LOCO project is looking for 2 PhDs and 2 Post-docs in (bio-)archaeology, history, geochemistry, and digital humanities. This joint project between VUB, KUL, and UGent looks at the mobility of people, materials, and ideas in the Low Countries. Apply before 30 April 2025.   

On 25 March 2025 - that is, today - the book Wereldsteden van de Lage Landen: Stadsgeschiedenis van Nederland en België was published. Several authors, including SHOC historian Anne Winter, recount fifty cities that were pre-eminent metropolises.

On Monday, 10 March 2025, SHOC colleague Dennis De Vriese succesfully defended his PhD theses called Selling New Ways of Selling: Legitimising Regulation and Deregulation in the Brussels Meat Market .

Ypres was one the economic powerhouses of 13th-century Europe, but most of its medieval archives were lost during the First World War.

From 2025-2027, Benoît Henriet, Associate Professor of History at VUB and member of our research group SHOC, has been appointed as the new chairholder for the Chair Casterman-Hamers: History and Philosophy of Sciences.

We are proud to announce that a new article: "From Bruges to Brexit: nationalism, neoliberalism, and the Eurosceptic capture of the British Conservative Party" has been published in Contemporary British History!

We are proud to announce that SHOC member Bas Spliet has recently published a new article in The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History (TSEG). Find the article, entitled 'Plain and Old': Why Did Paintings Go out of Fashion? via this link. 

Marie-Charlotte Dubois (°2001) is joining SHOC as a PhD researcher. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in History (2022) and Master of Arts in History (2023) at KU Leuven. She is specialized in medieval history.